[NLRS] June EN37ed Contest Report

[Bill K0AWU]

              Hummmm .. Maybe it could be " Propagation?  What propagation? 
.. STRANGE propagation!"

   I was very discouraged early on in the contest due to the lack of 
activity as well as the propagation peculiarities. It looked like this might 
be the poorest June contest score in the seven years I have been keeping 
score. SLOWLY over the course of the weekend I crept toward a "low average" 
June score. Rovers accounted for 24% of my 207 contacts and 6m Es accounted 
for 20%, with a limited 6m Es opening starting about 16:00z Sunday.

  I'm guessing it was the beautiful weather that kept people away from the 
radio??? The activity level was SO low for a June contest. I consider this 
one to be the "big" contest of the year. Perhaps people knew that there 
would be no way to better last year's scores? Whatever the reason, the 
activity was really lacking. During the last 4 hours of the event, I had two 
contacts..... ARGH ....

  The lack of Es  hurt the score but it allowed for serious attention to 
weak signal operations and attention to the rover activity.

  I had several personal bests out of this contest. 15 grids on 222 ties my 
highest 222 grid count. 18 grids on 432 is my highest EVER, (thanks to 
N9TTX/R for 3 or those). After a "trial run" in the Jan contest, I had 6 
contacts in 6 grids on 902 and 4 or those grids were new grids for me. On 
1296, 8 grids were worked , the SDR IF paid off big time looking for the 
weak signals, this is a new high grid count for me. Then there were the 
FOUR  grids worked on 10Ghz, COOL!!  I continue to be very impressed with 
the strong signals I am seeing on 902. It sure seems to be a great band.

  6m -- 73 Qs  34 Grids
  2m -- 62 Qs  24 Grids
  222-- 21 Qs  15 Grids
  432-- 30 Qs  18 Grids
  902-- 6 Qs  6 Grids
1296-- 10Qs 8 Grids
10Ghz - 5Qs  4 Grids

207 contacts in 109 grids on seven bands yielded a score of 33,245pts.

---

   Up North we are "blessed" with pine trees and we all have heard about how 
pine trees and rovers don't mix. Well, Dave N9TTX/R said "the heck with 
that" and made a visit to our northern forests. It was very interesting to 
see just how much weaker Dave got as he moved south, but how much better he 
heard! Strange.  He was loud while in the woods, but sure had trouble 
hearing me. We capped off our N9TTX/R experiences by working Dave on 
2,222,432 and 1296 while he was in EN35. The 1296 contact was even on SSB! 
N9TTX/R shows up in my log 18 times with many of these being the only 
contact on that band, in that grid for the contest. EN38, EN48 and EN47 were 
even NEW grids for me on 222, Thanks Dave.

  Starting in EN24, I joined in on the W0ZQ/R bandwagon and ended up 
sweeping 2 meters --> 1296Mhz in EN24,EN44,EN43 and EN44. As an "aside", 
while Jon was in EN44 I complained that it was a shame that the lack of 
precip in the path prevents us from trying 10Ghz. Now I am beginning to 
learn, to Jon that statement was a challenge... "Hey just a minute, and we 
can try." "and try he did!" Moments later a 233 mile 10Ghz tropo contact was 
in the log. By about 75miles it was my longest pure tropo 10Ghz Q from home. 
NEAT. A few hours later we repeated with another similar distance 10Ghz 
contact in EN33. I had no idea that there was any chance for this kind of 
tropo on 10Ghz from my home QTH. Jon, thanks for taking the time and making 
the effort, great operator and great Qs!!

  The rover field was filled out with KC0P and N0HZO from 3 grids on 2m and 
W9FZ from EN45 on 3 bands. Sure was nice to have the rover activity, you 
guys/gal saved the contest!!

  In summary VERY LONG periods of no new signals. Flat conditions with 
432mhz and the higher bands seeming to be better than the low bands, 
especially on Sunday. Operators plagued by equipment problems seeming to be 
the norm, other than the exception. ( I ran most of the contest with the 
rotator control box disassembled and had an errant "break-in keying" 
setting, force me into replacing the 432 preamp FET Sunday morning. The 432 
sequencer works great as long as the break-in-keying is OFF ... !! .... ) 
... THEN ...... What happened to the late hour rush on Sunday? "Talk about 
lack of activity!!"

  Thank you everyone that got on and made noise in our direction. I am 
looking forward to our next QSO in every case. CU soon.

73  Bill   K0AWU  EN37ed